Nevada State Athletic Commission

According to Clark County, Nevada, civil court records, McGregor has filed a petition for judicial review of his $150,000 fine for the water bottle fight with Nate Diaz before UFC 202. The suit names NSAC Executive Director Bennett and the NSAC as respondents. A hearing date has yet to be scheduled and there is no further comment from McGregor or Bennett.

Bennett, the Executive Director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, says McGregor’s $150,000 fine has been misinterpreted, and that he will only pay $75,000 for the water bottle incident. The $150,000 number includes the $75,000 fine plus the value of a public-service announcement McGregor must do for the commission. McGregor also has to serve 50 hours of community service.

It appears the media and others got it wrong…I understand that he’s upset. I understand that he commands a phenomenal following and paydays and he’s a world-renowned champ. I get that he’s frustrated — $75,000 is a lot of money. But I think the remark is inappropriate. In fairness to Conor — and I say this with the utmost respect — I just don’t think he understands how the system works when he’s fined. [McGregor] wasn’t suspended, nor were people in either fighter’s camp that participated in this…I’ll be the first to say that we’ve got it right sometimes and we haven’t gotten it right other times. When we don’t, we want to right the wrong.

McGregor says that he’s not planning on fighting in Nevada any time in the near future, and that he has no intentions of paying the $150,000 fine. If McGregor doesn’t pay his fine or complete his community service, he could face a hard time getting a license to fight again in the state but from the sound of things that won’t be a problem.

I don’t see Nevada in my future, for the foreseeable future is how I see it. I’m free to do what I want. I’m good. I’m good. New York, New York. That’s what I think…I thought they might respect [me calling in] a little bit more. I owned up. I manned up. I’m here. I apologized. I’m not trying to blame nobody, although they fired the rounds off first. I didn’t think they would even go that route because I didn’t think this was like a real thing. Are they going to come and arrest me or what the (expletive) is that?..I wanted to give them the respect and I felt they would have respected that but they didn’t. So, whatever. It is what it is. Good luck trying to get it.

On Diaz:

I do not wish to see Nate get any more or any less than me. I don’t want to see either of us have something like this happen. But we’ll see. I don’t know. If they went that way on me I don’t know what way they’re going to go on him. He threw the bottle first, but I don’t wish he get more than me or anything like that. I just wish we’d get it sorted out and get on with it and carry on.

White says he supports McGregor after the Irishman was fined $150,000 by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

If you threw a water bottle and got fined a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, would you fight there again? That guy could fight on an island off the coast of Peru and sell tickets. Las Vegas needs him, he doesn’t need Las Vegas…A hundred and fifty thousand dollars for a water bottle? That’s crazy.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission fines McGregor five-percent of his $3 million purse ($150,000) for the water bottle fight with Diaz inside the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in August. At least one security guard from the hotel was hit with a bottle or can that was thrown by McGregor. He was also fined 50 hours of community service, to be served within six months. McGregor was on the phone from Ireland:

I just want to apologize for the incident, it was a very unusual incident that unfolded. I acted wrong and all I can say is I’m sorry.

McGregor and Diaz are accused by Nevada State Athletic Commission of behavior “detrimental to a contest or exhibition of unarmed combat” due to their water bottle fight at the UFC Press Conference at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. By comparison, Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones were fined 10 percent of their purses after they got into a brawl in August 2014 in the MGM Grand. Jones paid $50,000 as well as doing community service; Cormier paid $9,000 and had to do community service for his part in the fight. As McGregor and Diaz made far more from their fight the potential penalty is higher. An announcement on the hearing date has not been released.

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